A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...

So my last post might have left you hanging...but it very well could have been my last ever. Sitting at an obscure gate of the Phoenix Airport, I was waiting to board my mini double propeller plane, watching the pilots joke around with the gatekeeper (the same person who checked me in at the front desk - FYI: it is not a reassuring sign when the airline has only one employee in the entire airport). As our boarding time approached, I wondered when the pilot was going to go out and inspect his plane, but he kept yakking away. Eventually, he did go out, and a group of us 11 passengers followed about five minutes later. Most of the passengers were going on to New Mexico after the plane dropped three of us off in Page. I had to duck to get into the plane. Not a good sign. Inside the plane was so small - about a midget's wingspan. It had a narrow aisle, with a seat on each side. The plane wasn't very full, so I ditched my seat in the crowded back end of the plane for a seat in the mi...

This is the plane I will be taking to Page. It's the little one on the left with eight windows. It's about as big as two of the baggage carts (foreground). So far there are three people at the gate waiting for this plane (I think). I guess it will be less packed than my last flight!

So these photos are a bit old, but I was expecting Bryan to blog about this and he never did, so I am. On June 8, Bryan and I attended the Crescent Valley High School graduation in Corvallis, where all of our high school students go to school. We had three students graduating: Esther Ha, Michael Kang and Chanho Park. Below is a photo of Esther and her sibs Daniel (sophomore) and Eunice (collegeish age). This is a typical portrait of their family - with them goofing off. Right as I was taking the photo, Esther nailed Daniel in the stomach and both of them were laughing. Esther went to AZ with us last year and will be heading of for DTS in Switzerland in early July. She is awesome, and has grown so much over the past three years I have known her. I have high expectations for her future and am proud that she made it to graduation day! Above is Daniel and Michael sharing a laugh together after graduation. Both of these guys are in AZ right now on our mission trip. I am currently sitting i...

My great grandma always loved Memorial Day. She was a stickler for making sure that her husband Jack's grave was always decorated with flowers and an American Flag on the special day. Over the past few years she has been too sick to go out on Memorial Day, but just last year on that day, I took my brother and cousins out to Grandpa Jack's grave to mke sure he had his flag (as seen on my blog entry one year ago!). Because of my great-grandma's reverence for Memorial Day, it was only fitting that she passed away May 25, on that holiday this year. When I first found out about her passing, I grieved because I always hoped my children would know their great-great grandmother, as I had known mine. Leading up to her funeral, I recalled how much I had cried at my great-grandpa Jack's funeral when my mom struggled through a song in his honor. It's tough seeing your own mother cry. I was only 10 then, so I was hoping the extra 15 years would give me something to stand behind....

My brother, Steven, went backpacking Memorial day weekend with his friend, my dad and my little brother Shane, so Steven's dog Sid Vicious came to say with us. As you can see, he and Macie got along famously. Turns out Macie is super territorial, but she only made him bleed once and they seemed to tire each other out nicely.

This was a sight for sore eyes I found outside one of the businesses I was at in Woodburn. He cracks me up with his grandpa scowl. This other set of starling chicks were hidden in a nearby bush. I had to wiggle my finger over their heads to get them to open their mouths. Poor tortured animals. The mama birds were not too happy with my intrusion on their turf. They were circling overhead, getting ready to divebomb me.

So I haven't written in a while, mainly because I've been busy at work actually working. I couldn't do a blog entry from home because my computer currently does not have a working power cord. This leads me into my first story... So Bryan's power cords for his laptop are always breaking...whether it's from Macie chewing on them or just bad luck, he's had to order two new ones so far in the last six months. Due to the fact that his computer was not working, he was using mine for his latest onslaught of seminary papers and church work. Then, low-and-behold, my laptop stops working! We took it in to Best Buy to see if the Geek Squad could figure out the problem, and they determined it was the power cord, and told us to call HP and get a new one (since the computer is still under its 1-year warranty ). I called the 800 number he gave me and spent the next 22 minutes being transferred back and forth between the workers at the HP call center in India, who barely spo...